From a pure ROI standpoint, user experience (UX) research offers organizations low-cost discovery and de-risking. By identifying problems at the earliest stages of a product’s development—before spending expensive engineering and design resources—companies can achieve significant savings.
This approach established lo-fi prototype testing as a staple of UX research, widely used for decades. Many of us even cut our teeth testing webpages with paper prototypes. While the paper and website example may seem archaic given today’s tools, this approach continues to add value.
From prototyping the page to prototyping the experience
Sure, traditional lo-fi prototyping is sometimes used to evaluate app screens, websites, or medical device instructions, but our team increasingly uses the ‘lo-fi prototype mental model’ to support clients throughout the development cycle, especially in the exploratory stages. This approach proves particularly effective within technology spaces and frameworks that are very much of the moment, including AI and ecosystem design.
By emphasizing efficient methods to identify opportunities and reduce risk, we have evolved from prototyping pages to prototyping entire experiences.
Real-life examples of an experience-prototyping mindset
To illustrate how your organization can prototype experiences—without incurring delays, navigating red tape, or facing the costs and risks of engineering delays, consider these four examples from our recent client work:
WIZARD OF OZ MEETS AI: A global technology provider wanted to understand hybrid approaches to AI agents to fulfill customer needs across multiple service vectors. They needed insight on product features as well as product market fit, but for this innovative hybrid model, it was too soon and too risky to build the actual AI or open call centers.
We worked with the client to use a ‘wizard of oz’ technique, where offscreen researchers roleplayed both AI and human customer service agents for hundreds of participants. By prototyping the experience, we helped the client identify how, where, and when customers wanted to implement this potential solution, thereby avoiding costly missteps.
ECOSYSTEM CARD SORTING: A leading medical device manufacturer set out to uncover how different customer groups expected and wanted to engage with their proposed system for wearable devices for administering injections, the mobile web, a soon-to-be-released app, and their community (healthcare provider, pharmacy, family, and others living with the same condition).
We used a sophisticated variation on simple card-sorting to represent each ecosystem element and iterated designs based on observing interactions with multiple user groups. The client used data on how users envisioned and prioritized interactions across the systems to actively optimize their final product experience.
3D PHYSICAL PROTOTYPE WITH SIMULATED AUDIOVISUAL CUES: A manufacturer of home appliances needed actionable data on user habits and needs to inform the design of their latest generation of countertop appliances. Evaluating the user interface alone during this development phase wasn’t enough, as audio and visual cues outside the primary interface affect how users interact with the product. By now you know the refrain: working prototypes were not yet available.
We created facsimiles using a 3D printer and incorporated sounds, buzzers, and lights to simulate the user experience. We paired observations of participants interacting with the prototype with interviews to gather insights on habits and preferences, allowing the client to align product specifications before manufacturing.
ACCESSIBLE AND ACHIEVABLE: As we wrote this piece, we reviewed our long history of work in the accessibility space. Many years ago, before voice recognition approached the accuracy we expect today, a leading telecom provider sought our help in designing a phone to better serve visually impaired users.
The stakes ran high — litigation over lack of accessibility loomed, yet the technology felt nascent and costly. Our team collaborated with the telecom provider to prototype a voice recognition experience on a mobile phone using PowerPoint, audio clips, and a moderator who controlled the prototype in reaction to participants’ voice inputs. We gathered data as hundreds of visually impaired participants navigated and commented on the flow. As a result, the client was able to do the right things for a previously neglected customer segment.
This ‘prototype the experience’-mindset opens up thinking on the latest UX challenges. The versatility of these lo-fi methods cuts across industries and technologies, from AI to medical devices. Would this approach help innovate more efficiently in your own organization? Try them out, or give us a call: we love to collaborate.